9th Lesson - Using Colour to Create Movement In Water

At last we are on to the water!  I am using a mix of Prussian Blue, Cobalt and Permanent Rose for the purples and adding some Red Gold for the lovely orange reflections in the water.  The water has plenty of movement, so the colours are swirled around while the paint is wet.  I've kept it dark at the edges to merge into the green foliage.  I don't want any hard edges.  Slowly but surely!

This is a painting by one of my students, Grace Williamson - not so much a student any more as you can see.  This was indeed a challenge trying to handle all those greens, with the light and shadow coming through the foliage.  She has handled it perfectly.

4th Lesson - Donkey

Well, we are on to the fine brush strokes now.  Every hair counts.  I just pretend that I am actually brushing a donkey - following the hair growth with a loaded fine brush.  I start with the darks, then mid-tones, then white.  I alter my colours slightly as I go so he doesn't look too drab - a bit of blue here, some green and pinks - nothing too obvious of course.

Crikey! It's Australia Zoo

My latest animal painting finished!  The photo of the tiger was taken at Australia Zoo.  I made up the jungle background from a few photos taken in Singapore.  The hardest part of the painting for me was dealing with all the greens.  I intentionally started with a blue-green, hazy background and gradually moved forward to a more greeny-green.  The foliage in front of the tiger was a more definite yellow-green.  This was a little out-of-focus so that all the attention would focus on the tiger.

3rd Lesson - Donkey

I always like to paint the eyes of an animal early on.  They're usually the most important feature of an animal painting and gives you a head start in how the painting will look.  The eyes were very dark.  They have a slight brownish tinge with a dark (black) pupil and I flicked a bit of light blue highlight in them to give them sight.  While I had the darks mixed on my palette, I then went to the nostrils.  They are very dark against the centre and gradually lighten up as they emerge into the light.